The Canon Pixma MP530 is one of two office-oriented inkjet all-in-one printers in Canon's offering. For a mere AU$399, you get a machine that prints, scans, copies, and faxes and does everything quite well. Photo enthusiasts will be disappointed by the lack of media card slots and a preview LCD, but the printer does feature a PictBridge port for direct printing from a camera. The included automatic document feeder and built-in duplexer are much appreciated; in fact, the only office feature this all-in-one lacks is built-in networking capability. If you don't mind working around that, this is a nearly perfect workhorse for a home-office environment; we haven't seen a better office-oriented all-in-one in this price range. If networking is your highest priority, try the Brother MFC-5840cn, but you'll be happier with the quality of the MP530's prints and scans. Canon's other office all-in-one is the Pixma MP830, which provides faster speeds, media card slots, and a preview LCD, but no networking capability, for an additional AU$150.
Design
The Canon Pixma MP530 is fairly compact, though boxy, for an
office-oriented all in one that prints, scans, copies, and faxes. It
sits 18.5 inches wide, 18.4 inches deep, and 10.4 inches tall and
weighs a manageable 28 pounds. The automatic document feeder mounted on
top of the scanner lid handles up to 30 pages of originals for copying
or scanning. The scanner platen can manage up to A4-size originals, but
using the ADF, you can scan up to legal-size originals. The scanner
lid's hinges lift to accommodate thicker originals, too.
Not surprisingly, the office-oriented Pixma MP530 has limited photo printing options. While it does have a PictBridge port for printing directly from PictBridge-enabled still and video cameras, it lacks media card slots. The Brother MFC-5840cn offers media card slots.
The MP530 has two options for paper input: a cassette and an auto sheet feeder. This arrangement is convenient if you often switch back and forth between plain paper and specialty papers. Each can hold up to 150 sheets of plain paper. The auto sheet feeder folds out from the rear of the printer while the cassette slides out from the bottom front. Both have adjustable paper guides to handle different sizes of paper. The output tray folds out from the body of the printer with a touch of a button, and an extension flap folds out to corral longer pages. Unfortunately, while there is a door in the back of the printer for clearing paper jams, the printer isn't set up to handle straight pass-through, which is sometimes problematic if you're printing on stiffer media that resists bending, such as card stock.
The control panel is mounted on a "shelf" on the front of the printer. A two-line text LCD lets you navigate the various menus, but it's not backlit. Dedicated function buttons let you switch between copy, fax, and scan tasks. To access the menu for each task, first press the task button, then press the menu button. Left, right, back, and OK buttons let you drill up and down through the menus. Dedicated buttons let you change the exposure, reduce or enlarge, and alter image quality while in copy mode. You can also change the paper type (size and quality), as well as switch between the auto sheet feeder and the cassette with a touch of a button. Rounding out the control panel are fax-dedicated buttons (alphanumeric keypad and redial), task start buttons, and a stop/reset button.
To access and replace the ink tanks, simply lift up on the control panel shelf. The MP530 uses a five-ink system: dye-based black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, and a pigment-based black. The printer ships with full ink cartridges, and the printhead is conveniently labeled so that you know where each tank lives. A light mounted on the front of each tank tells you the status of that tank: low ink, empty, and whether it's properly installed.
Features
Unlike the photo-centric all-in-ones, the Canon Pixma MP530 includes a
fax function, making it a true office workhorse. We wish it was also
network-ready, which would make it indispensable in a multiuser
environment. Unfortunately, you can connect to it only via USB. You can
get around that by connecting the MP530 to a router with a built-in
print server or by buying a standalone print server, but a
network-ready printer is a much more elegant solution. On the other
hand, it does support both Windows and Mac operating systems.
One feature we really like on this machine is the built-in duplexer, which allows for automatic double-sided printing and copying. This is a boon for anyone trying to save money or the environment. When copying, you can reduce or enlarge by using preset ratios (25 to 400 percent), custom ratios (zoom), or automatic ratios (fit to page). You can also adjust the exposure and the image quality or copy to both sides of the page. Other special copy functions include 2-on-1 or 4-on-1 copy, sticker copy, borderless copy, image repeat, and collated copy.
When you connect a PictBridge-enabled camera, you can access the photo print menu by pressing the menu button. Here, you can change paper size and type and the image layout or optimise the image. While we really appreciated it when printers include media card slots, we can understand why an office-oriented all-in-one doesn't.
You can set up the fax function in a number of different ways, depending on your needs. The included user guide outlines your options from connecting to an analog phone line or an ADSL to adding an answering machine to the mix. For numbers you fax to often, you can program up to 40 speed-dial entries. You can even use the ADF for sending a multipage fax. Also, the fax's memory can store up to 150 pages, perfect for when you want to be discreet about incoming faxes or you just want to weed out junk faxes to save paper.
When scanning, you also have a broad range of options. Using the included MP Navigator software, you can quickly select your task and choose options. You can save the document to your PC as a number of different file types, print the scanned document or photo, attach the scan to an e-mail, or use the optical character recognition software to convert the scan into an editable text file. Using the ADF, you can also do batch scanning.
Performance
Befitting the Canon Pixma MP530's office-oriented status, it was quick
at basic office tasks, but slow at photo printing. It printed text
documents at a snappy 6.77 pages per minute, scanned black-and-white
images at 5.64ppm, scanned colour documents at 5.22ppm, and copied at a
rate of 3.83ppm. On the other hand, it printed 4x6 photos at a poky
0.29ppm. The HP OfficeJet 5610 offers faster colour scanning, but it's
slower at everything else.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 |
Copy speed | |
Colour scan speed | |
Grayscale scan speed | |
Photo speed | |
Text speed |
The print quality was also impressive. The text prints were nearly perfect to the naked eye, about as good as it gets for inkjet printers. The colour graphics prints were also excellent: smooth curves, nicely saturated colours, grain-free colour blocks, and excellent photo elements. The only problem we saw was some minor banding in colour gradients. We also really liked the photo prints: good detail, great colour handling (a tad dark, perhaps), and nice flesh tones.
Scan quality is often the downfall of all-in-one printers, but not so for the Pixma MP530. The colour scan showed excellent detail and smooth gradients. The colours were a bit on the light side, but nothing egregiously bad. The grayscale scan also displayed nice detail and a good handling of patterns. The Canon Pixma MP530 is an all-around impressive performer.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
|
Colour scan | |
Grayscale scan | |
Graphics on inkjet paper | |
Text on inkjet paper |
Canon provides a one-year limited warranty for the Pixma MP530 which you can extend to three years for AU$99. You can also get tech support via e-mail, and Canon says it will respond within 24 hours. Canon's site has FAQs, a troubleshooting tool, downloadable drivers and software, and PDFs of product and software manuals.
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Evan L
23/11/2008, 06:28 AM
rating
2/10
Horrible. Waste of money, and I am a student. It just stopped working at just 3 months of use - it won't recognize that it has paper in it, and sounds like internally grinding gears.
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frank nalej
07/11/2008, 12:43 AM
rating
10/10
this model is full of rubbish mp530 all time have a problem fixing cost then new price serial no aamu12172
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dstarr
05/08/2008, 02:59 PM
rating
1/10
The MP530 frustrates me to no end. Constantly receive 'check ink' error messages, even when ink tanks are full. Also receive '2 cartridges of same color installed' when clearly this is not true. When an error message is present, all functions are disabled, making the machine useless. After much research, found Canon has faulty chips on the ink cartridges. Resolution? Buy more ink chips. Did that, and guess what? They were faulty as well. Grrrr...
Pros: WHEN it works, it does a good job.
Cons: Most of the time, it is locked up due to faulty chips and bogus error codes.
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Wind
05/04/2008, 10:46 AM
rating
2/10
Ink level reset is a big con.
Cons: Ink level reset is a big Con.
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automateck
28/03/2008, 07:56 AM
rating
4/10
This was a good printer but after a year of use the ink now splatters as it prints and there are printer errors when I try to copy documents from the feed on top. Can still copy from scanner but then I need to enter each sheet individually. Probably not worth fixing, like most like all-in-ones today.
Pros: Good colour and speed.
Cons: Goes through ink fast and parts don't hold up to time. Feeds are flimsy.
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mideco
20/03/2008, 10:45 AM
rating
2/10
I have had many problems with this printer. The quality is quite good, if it works. It works fast, but it only starts printing 30 seconds after you gave command. IN that 30 seconds you hear it move inside like it is preparing for printing.
Cons: When I want to start printing, it says that there are two inkcartridges installed of the yellow, I decouple the only yellow one and couple it again, and it starts printing.
Refilling the cartridges? Don't try. There is no way to reset the 'low ink level'. You always have to buy new ones.
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JoeCool
29/12/2007, 12:14 PM
rating
9/10
Replaced Canon MP390 - needed machine that could handle more volume
Pros: Quick printing, duplexing, auto-feed are upgrades from MP390 - wonderful features! Excellent product for price and ink cartridges can be found under $5 online. Very good Value for small office
Cons: Don't really have cons, I'm comparing to MP390 which is bulkier and does not have near the feartures. I've been very pleased~
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FredV
17/12/2007, 06:15 AM
rating
10/10
Switched from HP to Canon and I couldn't be happier
Pros: Fantastic photo printer!
Having a separate print head equates to lower operating costs.
Cons: No lan connection.
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Music teacher
06/09/2007, 09:50 PM
rating
9/10
Bought Mp530 to replace a Brother 440CN (which was hopeless). This machine is fast, prints at good quality and very functional. I should have bought one in the first place.
Pros: Two ways to load paper. ADF scanning/copying. Fax and copying capbility. Good reproduction on gloss paper. Doesn't jam all the time (in fact not at all, so far) Seems to be good on use of ink. Simple to set up and doesn;t appear to take a lot of computer memory up when connected.
Cons: Not as compact as the brother 440cn for a home environment. But I need a good machine to spit out reports at a good quality, double sided at times, fast.
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Mark
11/06/2007, 04:23 PM
rating
9/10
I this machine perfect for the home office. I print many AutoCAD drawings that have been reduced from A0 to A4 size. The quality of the print is good enough for me to read the dramatically reduced print size.
Pros: Good print quality, and scans well.
Cons: Auto feeder prints misaligned copies and it can be a bit thirsty with ink. As per many Canon machines, it does not like anything but genuine Canon ink cartridges that are more expensive than spare kidneys on the black market. Although, I think this not an issue that is specific to Canon.
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